Nebraska Athletic Director Tom
Osborneand Prem
Paul, UNL's vice chancellor for research & economic development, kicked
off six hours of shared vision Thursday for the 45,000 square feet of research space
under construction in Nebraska’s East Stadium expansion project, and let the record show that the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln’s chancellor and two members of UNL’s Board of Regents were impressed.

“I think this athletic department can make a
niche for itself at a time when it is critical that athletic departments be
seen as productive and constructive in unique ways,” UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlmantold more than 100 attending a retreat with a theme of Building Research Collaborations.

“It will be awhile before we get beyond the
Penn State, North Carolina, Miami, Ohio State issues,” Perlman said, “and I
think that nothing could make us at the university prouder than to acknowledge
that our athletic program is not only up to winning, but we’re offering our student-athletes
the opportunity to use the program to provide information that may be more
broadly helpful to society than just performance. This is exciting. It’s the first step, and I encourage all of you in the
athletic department and on the academic side of the university to work hard to
make this work.”

Connecting Nebraska
Athletics with UNL Research

Regents
Tim Clare
and Jim McClurg
were equally enthused Thursday about the possibilities for connecting Nebraska
Athletics with UNL’s strengths in research. Fromengineering
and psychology to management, communications, and nutrition and health
sciences, the opportunities for research collaborations related to health and performance
are vast.

UNL
Psychology Professor Dennis
Molfesewill lead the proposed Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior
that will occupy a portion of the research space. Molfese shared his vision of
a center he believes will “set the tone for the rest of the country.” The center is a cornerstone of proposed
collaborations, and seven UNL faculty members outlined Nebraska’s diverse research
expertise and capabilities Thursday for an audience that included experts from all disciplines. They described an array of potential connections and
collaborations related to health and athletic performance research.

“A
variety of fields will work together to provide different research that’s not
being done anywhere in the country,” Clare said. “It’s another signature of expertise
that Nebraska is bringing to the country ... another Nebraska first ... and it’s
exciting to have leaders in place who are willing to put their expertise
together, so it not only benefits the university and the state, but the entire
country.”

Nebraska
has a national reputation for its focus on student-athletes. “It’s the Nebraska
Way and why people respect the program,” McClurg said. “This is a way for us to
keep our student-athletes healthy and to help them perform, and this
collaboration takes what we do to an all-together different level. It is next-generation
technology and next-generation leadership, and it’s very exciting for us to get
into this position.”

Academic Achiever,
Innovative Coach, Dynamic Leader

Thursday
was a pivotal day for a stoic leader. Osborne not only is a Hall-of-Fame
football coach zeroed in on student-athlete health and welfare, but also was
the Nebraska Athletic Department’s first-ever academic counselor, so he’s been
connecting academics with athletics for more than five decades. A true pioneer
in football specifically and athletics generally, Thursday’s kickoff retreat
took Osborne back to the ‘60s when he convinced Bob
Devaneyto hire Boyd Epley, the first strength and
conditioning coach in college and pro football history.

Well
known for his academic roots and innovative ways, Osborne faced a crossroads
when he earned his doctorate degree at Nebraska in Educational Psychology.
Devaneyasked Osborne to make a choice between
football and academia, and, fortunately, Osborne chose football.

Thursday,
Perlman drew a laugh when he recalled how former Nebraska Chancellor Woody Varnerwould tell people
that Nebraska was the only university in the country that had a head football
coach with a Ph.D. and a president without
one.

“I’m
very excited about the prospects here,” Perlman said. “When you start
collaboration, you never know what’s going to happen. You don’t know if linkages
will be vague, but when you put a lot of good people who are comparable
together, you do know that good things will happen. I think that’s the real power of this
enterprise, the real value of this retreat and the value of these two research spaces
that have been put together so that interaction can take place.”

McClurg:
Collaboration Core of Unique Partnership

Interaction,
of course, is the match that lights communication and cooperation. “Collaboration
is at the core of all of this,” McClurg said. “It helps Nebraskans see
athletics and leadership and students and even physicists in physiology coming
together so that 1+1=3 every morning.

“The
collaboration is enormous,” McClurg added. “We have so much talent at this
university and to see everyone stack up together is just so powerful. You
know what else? There’s nothing wrong with this being fun. What could be more
fun than having cutting-edge research that supports all of these
wonderful student-athletes and, at the same time, helps Nebraska win?”

Clare
remembers talking to several people that became catalysts for the collaboration
two years ago. “I encouraged all of them to capitalize on other expertise on
the campus – bring in psychology, bring in management, bring in other forms and
other disciplines because everyone can collectively come out of this with a
dynamic amount of research that can benefit the university, the state of
Nebraska and the entire country."

Triple-Crown
Leadership: Osborne, Paul and Molfese

“I
am 100 percent on board and excited about the prospects of our
academic/athletic collaboration,” Clare said. “That’s what happens when you
have great leaders. You put the leaders in place, and they stay within the
parameters of what we’re trying to do and then just go out and get it done. Coach Osborne’s
leadership has been outstanding. Prem Paul’s leadership has been outstanding. Dr. Molfese’s leadership has been outstanding.”

As a key part of this triple crown of leadership, Molfese will be an anchor tenant in a research facility
that could go beyond influencing this city, this state and this country. With Osborne,
Paul and Molfese leading the charge, we might be talking world-class, and that
would suit Chancellor Perlman just fine.